Tuning into animals

By Beth Beasley tnw writer

Wednesday

Jan 30, 2008 at 12:01 AM

Getting into the mind of an animal to understand its thoughts and emotions might seem an almost impossible task. Not so, says animal communicator Denise Anthes. It's a skill that can be learned by anyone.

Anthes, 51, worked for 30 years as a registered nurse and is now enjoying her new career as an animal communicator.

"It's not a special gift -- I wasn't raised by a pack of wolves," Anthes says. "If I can learn animal communication, anyone can."

The Weaverville resident has been helping clients professionally for about two years. "The business is growing and growing," Anthes says.

After her long career in nursing, Anthes became certified in Healing Touch therapy, which helps patients self heal by addressing physical, mental and emotional needs.

In the process, Anthes discovered that Healing Touch was effective for animals, too. She became interested in learning how to communicate with animals and took classes from three established practitioners.

Using Healing Touch can help calm an anxious pet. Often, Anthes says, animals will pick up on turbulent, emotional energy in their household.

"For some it may be traumatic when 'mom' goes to work every day," Anthes says.

Many of the issues Anthes treats are behavioral. In dogs she helps owners resolve problems such as aggressive behavior, excessive barking and unresponsiveness. She offers support for animals that undergo surgery, too.

During a recent house call Anthes traveled to the Asheville home of Kaleo Wheeler to resolve ongoing aggression between Alika, an older male cat, and her new kitten.

Anthes explained to Alika that it was now his responsibility to act as a big brother to the kitten.

After one session with Anthes, Wheeler saw a change in Alika. After a second session, she saw a big turnaround. "Alika and the kitten have really bonded," Wheeler says.

In many cases, however, she works over the telephone, using telepathy. When she works over the phone, she will often ask a pet owner to e-mail her a photo of the animal.

The key to her work, Anthes says, is recognizing the difference between how humans and animals communicate.

"Animals think in pictures," Anthes says. "For example, a flock of birds in flight or another cat's face. But it's also important to know that depending on the species and animal, some may also understand parts of our vocabulary."

In the wild, animals communicate with body language such as a flick of the tail or by simply giving off negative energy, she says.

"Learning Healing Touch has made me realize that we are all energetic beings," says Anthes. "But most times, animals just need a situation explained to them. It can be that easy."

And it's important to keep in mind that just like humans, every animal has a different personality.

"Animal logic is different than our logic, and they also live wholly in the present moment," she says. "It's important to hear their side of the story -- always with the utmost respect for the animal."

Alphie Rodriguez, an Asheville resident, took an intuition workshop from Anthes at the city's YWCA. It included animal communication skills.

"I didn't know I could talk to dogs!" Rodriguez says of the experience. "Denise was very clear in her teaching and gave us a lot of time to focus on what we were doing."

When she teaches, Anthes asks her students to relax, open up their hearts and imagine being a certain animal, down to the last detail, using all of their senses.

Anthes notes her successes with her cocker spaniel Lala, who used to have a barking problem. She would bark at any little noise she heard outside. So Anthes quietly discussed the problem with Lala.

Anthes told Lala it was her job to protect her house if someone came into the yard. Then she explained that dogs from other houses would take care of their own properties so Lala needn't bark for them. Her barking has declined by about 85%.

You can communicate with animals by thoughts or the spoken word, Anthes says. "It's all about communicating the energy of the message; the more positively, the better."

Anthes works with a variety of breeds. She resolved a pet owner's issue with a rabbit that used to push its bedding out of its cage. In another case, she helped a llama that was acting confused and irritated following a bout with encephalitis that required taking large quantities of antibiotics.

The llama's condition improved after Anthes reassured him it was unlikely the disease would return. The owners also sought additional medical treatment for the llama after Anthes received mental images from the animal of crossed wires in its brain.

"I am not a vet - I don't diagnose," Anthes says. "But I do have some transferable medical knowledge from my human nursing experience of 30 years."

Although Anthes is humble about her communication gifts, her peers think highly of her special skills.

Anthes teaches Healing Touch to the massage therapy students at AB Tech on a continuing basis.

"Denise has been empowering with the students and is a natural teacher," Reischman says. "She's also very funny and light-hearted on top of being educated. I'm learning new things from her all the time."

How does Anthes handle skeptics who question her ability to communicate with animals?

"I educate people and then it's up to them to 'believe' or not," Anthes says. "The best way is for them to try it themselves. Most people come to a workshop, thinking that they will not be able to 'learn' this skill and happily, they do!"

She clearly loves her work.

"This has been so much fun," Anthes says. "I feel like part of my service is to bridge abstract concepts and make them simpler to learn."